Entries by Lisana Eckenrode

The First Annual Wild and Wooly Art and Nature Music Festival was held May 5th at the North Georgia Community Center. The festival was held by the Georgia ForestWatch to raise awareness and funds.
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Asthma is one of the most common lifelong chronic diseases. There are almost 26 million Americans living with asthma. The disease affects the lungs, causing repeated episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing. Although asthma cannot be cured, it is possible to manage asthma successfully to reduce and prevent asthma attacks, also called episodes. Successful asthma management includes knowing the warning signs of an attack, avoiding things that may trigger an attack, and following the advice of your healthcare provider. Using what you know about managing your asthma can give you control over this chronic disease. When you control your asthma, you will breathe better, be as active as you would like, sleep well, stay out of the hospital, and be free from coughing and wheezing. To learn more about how you can control your asthma, visit CDC's asthma site.

Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States has a stroke. In 2008 alone, more than 133,000 Americans died from stroke—or one person every four minutes— making it the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.

It is important for children to be fully immunized. Diseases that can be prevented with vaccines can be very serious – even deadly – especially for infants and young children. For example, children younger than 2 years old are at the highest risk for serious pneumococcal disease like pneumonia, blood infection (sepsis), and meningitis. Before the pneumococcal vaccine was used routinely, an estimated 17,000 cases of severe types of pneumococcal infection, like meningitis, occurred each year.

Dozens of children turned out for the Mountain Ridge Garden Shop's 2nd Annual Easter Egg hunt on Saturday, April 7. The children enjoyed a warm, sunny morning while the searched for the 700 plastic eggs filled with candy and prizes hidden in the field beside the garden shop.
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The Ellijay Elementary Fourth Grade Class delighted the near-capacity crowd at the school's auditorium on March 24 with their performance of "Beauty and the Beast Jr". The audience cheered as the children danced and sang to the songs from the 18th century classic French fairy tale made famous by Walt Disney Pictures after the 1991 release of the animated Beauty and the Beast.
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On February 9, the 35th Annual Gilmer Nursing Home Pageant was held in the cafeteria. This year's pageant theme was "Follow the Yellow Brick Road." The cafeteria was decorated with reminders of the 1939 film The Wizzard of Oz and the nursing home staff on hand dressed as characters from the film. Members of Girl Scout Troop 8146 were on hand to help with the presentation of the awards.
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Police responded to a call on January 25 around 10:30 a.m. after an unidentified flat bed semi truck tried to navigate a right turn onto Highway 52 West from Boardtown Road and became “stuck” on a hump in the asphalt.
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On January 13, an announcement was made by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement that Gilmer Middle School was chosen as a platinum award winner in the 2011 Single Statewide Accountability System (SSAS) awards. The school was chosen because of their gains in student achievements. Gilmer Middle School is one of only 10 middle schools in the state of Georgia to receive this award for the 2010-2011 school year.